Ultimate Intimacy

Ostow Mortimer was a psychiatrist and neuroscientist who specialised in the study of anti-Semitism and religious and racial fanaticism. He maintained a private practice in Manhattan, and his works include 'Myth and Madness: The Psychodynamics of Anti-Semitism', 'Drugs in Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy' and 'The Psychology of Melancholy'. His studies of terrorism, and his theories on the Psychological causes of fanaticism are arguably more relevant than ever in the post-9/11 age.

'Regularly in essays, books and lectures on Jewish mysticism, the author will observe that the material is so strange and irrational that it invites psychological analysis. From his point of view, the psychoanalyst easily recognizes familiar dynamic formulations and myths and eagerly explores mystical materials for the universals of human fantasy and the sources of irrational thoughts and behavior; for information on methods of inducing alterations of behavior; and for the universals that characterize the relation between the individual and his community. It is the purpose of this book to introduce the psychoanalytic study of the Kabbalah as a serious discipline.'- Mortimer Ostow, from his Introduction.

• Preface -- Editorial Note -- Prologue -- Dimensions of mysticism -- The apocalyptic complex -- Mysticism and Prophecy -- Chapter Three -- Ezekiel and the Elders of Judah: The workings of a prophetic trance -- Comments -- Esoteric Mysticism, Merkavah and Hekhalot -- Chapter Four -- Four entered the garden: normative religion versus illusion -- Comments -- Chapter Five -- The psychodynamics of merkavah mysticism -- Methodology -- Methodological reflections on psychoanalysis and Judaic studies: a response to Mortimer Ostow -- Comments -- Sex And Gender in the Kabbalah -- Introduction -- Sexual metaphors and praxis in the Kabbalah -- Comments -- Crossing gender boundaries in kabbalistic ritual and myth -- Comments -- Comments on Idel and Wolfson -- Epilogue -- Concluding comments: union and reunion